The Edinburgh Mathematical Society is the leading mathematical society in Scotland. The Society was founded in 1883 by a group of Edinburgh schoolteachers and academics, on the initiative of A. Y. Fraser and A. J. G. Barclay, teachers at George Watson's College and Cargill Gilston Knott, professor of physics at the University of Edinburgh. The first president was J.S. Mackay, the head mathematics master at the Edinburgh Academy. The Society organises and funds meetings and other research events throughout Scotland. It also publishes an academic journal (the Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society) and every four years awards the Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize to an outstanding mathematician with a Scottish connection. It is a corporate member of the European Mathematical Society.
